Should Your Company Be Podcasting? Before we answer that question,
let's take a quick look at what a podcast is. Audio programming
isn't revolutionary.A company called Audible.com has been selling
downloadable content like audio books and radio shows for nearly
10 years. Now, thanks to the growing popularity and large storage
capacity of Apple’s iPods, tech experimentalists are considering
anew the possibilities of downloadable audio. Now with new, easy-to-use
distribution tools and cheaper storage capacity in addition to the
millions-sold iPod market, podcasting is going mainstream.
The broadcasting part comes from syndication tools
that allow listeners to subscribe to receive automatic downloads
of new podcasts in episodes that interest them. People who produce
podcasts use something called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to
create subscription feeds. Listeners point their podcatchers toward
those feeds and receive their automatic updates. Apple’s iTunes
software has built-in podcatching features, but you can also use
other programs, like the free Juice Receiver. These podcatching
programs transfer new episodes to your PC. Some software will then
even deliver the files to your digital music player automatically
using the RSS feed.
You can listen to podcasts without an iPod. Individual
podcast shows are usually recorded in common audio formats like
MP3, others are in AAC format. Some podcatchers’ auto-synch
features only work with iPods, but you can listen to podcasts on
any digital music player or on your PC with standard programs like
RealPlayer, Windows Media Player or any of the myriad other programs
available for download at no charge.
Your company can shape the message it delivers,
and a podcasting series distributed regularly to customers is a
great way to build their loyalty and create a bond with both customers
and new sales leads. The trick is to offer content listeners will
find useful. For some companies, the podcasting topics are more
obvious than others. Music distribution services provider Nugs.net
posts a monthly promotional podcast of samples from its archive
while travel website Hotelbook.com offers podcasts full of travel
tips. But companies that aren’t in the consumer services market
can still use promotional podcasts—they just have to be more
creative in figuring out what they have to offer.
If you're ready to begin making your own podcast,
Audacity is a popular, free program for recording and digitizing
and editing sound. HOwever, pretty much any sound software will
work. Once you have a recorded sound file, upload it to the internet
on your website; if you’re creating a series, set up an RSS
feed pointing to the site where new episodes will appear. That’s
all there is to it.
Unless you’re aiming for top-quality production
quality, podcasting is a fairly inexpensive undertaking. If you
don’t want to go the trouble of doing your own production,
services shops are springing up to handle podcasting chores. Some
companies have a production staff and network of voice artists on
tap to quickly convert scripts to ready-for-podcasting sound files.
Others have a hosting and syndication service that handles podcast
storage and RSS feed creation, with an unlimited bandwidth allowance.
For marketers interested in podcasting, the obstacles to start up
have never been smaller.
About the Author
Steven Wright is the webmaster for the podcasting community at www.findpodcasts.com.
Go there to find helpful tools, ask questions, read articles, and
increase your podcasting knowledge.
